Talk:Tristan Milligan/@comment-3575890-20150611050743
TRIGGER WARNING: RAPE Before I begin, I fully acknowledge that Tristan was sexually assaulted. I am not trying to invalidate that, but it is not at all sitting right with me that Tristan stans are trying to call out Zoe fans on this so called double standard they've pulled out of their ass that doesn't even apply on the principle that Zoe has been granted lenience because of her sexual assault, but Tristan has not been shown the same degree of understanding despite also being sexually assaulted. Of course, this all is topped with accusations of misandry and homophobia to boot because the DTC must always needlessly bring their self righteous social justice bullshit into everything. But what they fail to acknowledge is that for this to be a double standard against Tristan perpetuated by Zoe supporters, the two situations would have to be comparable, and they're NOT. We can all agree that all cases of rape are deplorable and rape is rape, but Tristan's assault just is not comparable with Zoe's in terms of the psychological effects. I hope to god I don't come off as a statutory rape apologist because I find statutory rape just as condemnable, but frankly, I feel it is a trivialization of Zoe's suffering to compare her assault that was violent, forcible, and so traumatic that it drove her nearly to suicide to Tristan's assault that wasn't any less assault, but wasn't violent, forced, nor had the mental impact congruent to Zoe's ordeal. Tristan had not felt the fear and pain that Zoe had because he had been under the illusion that he was giving consent and thus was able to walk away without the emotional scars and mental torment that Zoe endured namely because he didn't at the time realize he had been assaulted, and while that doesn't downplay the severity of what happened to him, it's just not right to compare it to Zoe's ordeal that had been deeply emotionally traumatizing for her and nearly drove her to commit suicide. Now perhaps Tristan experienced some trauma too once the reality set in and he realized what had happened to him. Even though we haven't really gotten to see inside his head like we have with Zoe since the writers seem to insist on keeping his character depth level akin to the depth of a kiddie pool, I think most people in his position would be in need of counselling after coming to terms with what happened. But I'm sorry, there is just no way that his experience has done psychological damage to even remotely the same degree as has been done to Zoe - the proof of that is in the pudding - and THAT is where the significantly more pronounced sympathy towards Zoe comes in. We were granted access into Zoe's head since it all begun. We have seen her trauma manifested in nightmares, visible emotional anguish, control issues, self destructive actions, suicidal tendencies; we have seen her suffering, we have seen the collapse of her mental state, we are able to understand her because we were given that insight. With Tristan, there is no insight. We know what happened to him, and of course we feel bad for him in that sense, but that's where it ends. We haven't seen how this experience has impacted him at all. And so in that sense, how can these situations even be compared? Another point worth mentioning is that unlike Zoe whom has grown from her pain and learned to turn her anguish into good will for others, Tristan hasn't changed one fucking bit, and isn't that the reason why he's so strongly disliked? He never changes. He's the most flat, one-dimensional character on this show second only to Drew Torres, whom sadly has had even less character growth, but ironically, the most screentime of anyone, lol. It's pretty hard to like a character that is such a revolving door. Tristan keeps repeating the same offences and never grows from them. I feel bad for him that he was assaulted, but that's the only sympathy he gets from me. When it comes down to it, Zoe is simply the more sympathetic character. She has supporters that don't support Tristan because she isn't a complete caricature like he is. We've seen her go through hell and come back from it, and through that we've glimpsed true humanity in her. We've seen complexity, layers and depth, and eventual character growth. Her ordeal actually played a role in her development. Tristan's ordeal, on the other hand, did nothing to further his character just like none of his plots before them have.